


Out of the Blue

by CKBookish



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Nightwing (Comics)
Genre: Bruce Wayne is a Good Parent, Car accident (mentioned), Court of Owls, Court of Owls AU, Dick Grayson Needs a Hug, Dick Grayson is a Talon, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Jason and Bruce are on goodish terms in this, Well more like Hurt Determination, batfam
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-20
Updated: 2021-01-20
Packaged: 2021-03-18 22:41:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28874739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CKBookish/pseuds/CKBookish
Summary: Bruce watched the talon move with a strange fascination.  Their bodies were always unnatural and moved in ways that seemed impossible.  But there was something about one that made him-- made his heart lurch.  What it was though he couldn’t place.  He also was busy fighting off several other assassins.  Jason was cursing next to him, firing shot after shot.  Red Hood, aimed to kill and for once Batman didn’t raise his voice to stop him.The talons always got up anyways.  It didn’t matter if the shot was to the head or if it merely clipped them.  The effect was the same.  They kept coming.  Bruce felt sick as he watched bullets push their way back out of the bodies and clatter to the roof and roll into the alleys below.
Relationships: Dick Grayson & Bruce Wayne, Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne
Comments: 46
Kudos: 272





	Out of the Blue

**Author's Note:**

> This was requested on Tumblr by Bb-basbusa. I hope it fits what you were looking for! I'm so sorry it took me two mouths to finish. I like to let ideas sit for a while before writing them down, also I've never done court of owls so it needed to think about it a lot. 
> 
> Thank you to the wonderful Neptunedance for beta reading this for me. 
> 
> As always I love to hear from you.

I am haunted by my worst mistake 

I go back every night in my dreams and make it right

I close my eyes and picture you here

I beg you for forgiveness and you put down the keys

I reach out to touch you, to hold you

I open my eyes and the phantom is gone

\--there’s nothing but a gold cold glow where you once were

* * *

Bruce watched the talon move with a strange fascination. Their bodies were always unnatural and moved in ways that seemed impossible. But there was something about one that made him-- made his heart lurch. What it was though he couldn’t place. He also was busy fighting off several other assassins. Jason was cursing next to him, firing shot after shot. Red Hood, aimed to kill and for once Batman didn’t raise his voice to stop him. 

The talons always got up anyways. It didn’t matter if the shot was to the head or if it merely clipped them. The effect was the same. They kept coming. Bruce felt sick as he watched bullets push their way back out of the bodies and clatter to the roof and roll into the alleys below. 

Bruce yelled as one grabbed his arm and pulled it back harshly. He flinched as the one he had been watching moved to throw a knife at Batman’s exposed side. Bruce cried out in pain, as the other talon twisted his arm further. The odd talon hesitated when Bruce cried out and it was enough. 

Bruce could twist unnaturally too. He had an old friend to thank for that. Bruce’s chest compressed slightly as he thought of his old partner, his old-- He hadn’t thought about him in years, not like that. Normally, he kept a lid on his feelings. He kept his grief and hurt tucked away in some secret part of his heart, where he would only take it out when it was safe to allow it to crush him under its weight. 

It hadn’t come up and surprised him like that in years. Bruce hit the talon holding him hard and the mask covering its face cracked. The talon hit him back harder. Bruce reeled from the blow and fell back into Jason. Jason stiffened to keep them both from falling over. 

“I think it’s time to go, old man!” Jason yelled over his gunfire. 

Bruce couldn’t agree more. Getting away was going to be difficult. Batman and Red Hood took off leaping from the roof to a neighboring one. Jason led them on a wild path of twists and turns. They dived under eaves and leaped through columns, swung from grotesques and turned over gutters. 

Jason suddenly froze under the overhang of the old library. Bruce skidded to a stop next to him, chest heaving. Jason stepped back against the building, and let the shadows hide him. Bruce grinned. The hiding spot was perfect. He was sure they lost the talons on the wild chase but they could stay here completely unseen until they were sure. No one would see them unless they knew this was here. 

“B?” Jason whispered slightly out of breath.

“Yeah?”

“What do they want?” 

Bruce wanted to reach over and pull Jason to him, but he knew that wouldn’t be well received-- not anymore. “I don’t know. I haven’t seen the court in years. They disappeared before Di— Before we met.”

“How did you stop them?” Jason sounded so small, just like that twelve year old he had met in an alley all those years ago, when grief had consumed him and fear surrounded Jason.

“I’m not sure.” Bruce hated to admit it.

“You and--” Jason sighed. “How did you stop them last time?”

Bruce felt that old ache return to his bones. He wondered if it would ever stop, or if he even wanted it to. It had been so long, but it still hurt as if it had just happened. Bruce’s biggest mistakes had made him lose the two things-- two people he loved most in the world. It didn’t seem to matter that Jason had returned. Bruce didn’t think he would ever really stop falling apart over firing Dick and letting him leave in that car,  _ or  _ letting Jason go see Sheila alone. No, Bruce would forever crumble under the guilt of those two moments. 

“B?” Jason asked impatiently. 

Bruce shook his head slightly, trying to shake the grief that webbed around his heart and mind. “We didn’t stop them. They just vanished.”

Jason swore. “That’s great. That’s just fantastic. And you're sure nothing you or-- he did took them down? Like for good?”

“No. Although Di-- we had a theory, that cold would stop them from healing, but they disappeared before we could ever test it.” Bruce closed his eyes and leaned back against the old stones. They were cool even through his cape and armor. 

“Well, we’ll just have to test that theory then.” Jason leaned forward slightly. “I think it’s safe to mov--”

A blade sliced through the air, imbedding itself in Jason’s coat. Jason’s eyes went wide as Bruce reached forward to block his son from further attack. Bruce couldn’t tell if the weapon had hit Jason or if the coat was the only loss. 

Bruce scanned the roofs looking for the talons, there was only one. The odd talon stood on the roof of the bank opposite them. It perched on the roof strangely, as if gravity didn’t affect it somehow. Bruce glanced back at Jason. He would distract this talon while Jason tried to free himself.

Bruce sprung off the roof, shooting his grappling gun. The talon tilted its head slightly as Batman moved but didn’t immediately attack. It watched Batman for a long time before it struck. It was fast and slippery as Bruce swung to block its advance. Batarangs dropped uselessly as Batman hit his mark. They only stayed embedded for a moment, before its flesh pushed them back out, leaving no blood or mark, the only sign: a slight tear in the talon’s uniform. 

Bruce glanced over his shoulder. Jason was still there. How hard could the talon throw? And if it was that good,  _ why  _ were they not dead? For though the talons were all a force to reckon with, it was clear this one was the best. 

He just needed to wait for Jason to free himself and then they could run. Bruce dove forward. The talon dropped under Batman’s attack and struck out at his legs.

The two moved over and across the roof matching each other blow for blow. Bruce felt sweat drip down the back of his cowl. He could hear Jason yelling something, but Bruce couldn’t hear the words. He was too focused. The talon moved as if it were liquid. It seemed to anticipate every move Bruce made. Something was familiar about it somehow. Bruce wondered if it had been part of the attack all of those years ago. 

“B!” Jason’s voice was much closer. “Down!”

Bruce dropped to the roof before he could think. The shot echoed loudly in the night. Bruce looked up to find the mask of the talon crack and fall. It stumbled back and clutched its face as whatever powered it’s ability to heal tried to push the round out. Jason darted forward and pulled Bruce up and back. Bruce watched in sick fascination as the talon writhed. He wondered if the bullet would work this time. Perhaps there was a weak spot somewhere on its head. But the talon soon straightened and dropped its hands from his face. 

His heart stopped. 

“B, let's go!” Jason was still tugging at him to pull him away. But suddenly Bruce found he didn’t  _ want  _ to go. “Come on!”

Bruce couldn’t breath. He couldn’t move. He-- it wasn’t  _ possible _ . It wasn’t real. 

Jason was dragging him back, his hands roaming his body as if looking for injuries. “I swear to-- B, are you--”

“Dick?” Bruce hadn’t been able to say that name in years. It always caught in his mouth, right on the edge of his tongue. It always hurt. Now it felt like pulling a dust sheet off an old hidden treasure chest. The word hung in the air for a long moment between the three of them. Jason stopped pulling on him. 

The talon didn’t move. Its eyes glowed a golden color and its face was more scarred. But somehow-- Bruce felt sick at the thought of it-- he looked not a day older than Bruce remembered him. 

“Dick?” Jason’s voice sounded harsh in the moment, like sandpaper over his nerves. “But he-- Bruce that’s not. Dick’s dead.” 

Bruce knew that. He knew his-- He saw the wreck. A car crash on the way to Kansas. Bruce would never forget that night. He would never forget the way his heart broke holding his first-- holding Dick’s body. He had done what the Joker couldn’t that night. He had killed Robin, not with a bullet but with a word. 

But that didn’t change the impossible truth there in front of him. He would never forget that face. He would never forget  _ him _ . He closed his eyes and saw it in the dark. He dreamed about it,  _ he  _ haunted his every waking moment. 

Bruce shook off Jason's hand and took a small step back towards the tal-- towards  _ him _ . 

“Dick?” His voice was little more than a whisper. 

It-- he stiffened and narrowed his eyes. The gold felt so wrong. Bruce took another step. “Dick. It’s-- it’s me. Do you… Dickie, do you remember me?” 

His face twisted oddly and Bruce wondered what had happened. He had  _ held  _ him,  _ buried  _ him. Or so he thought. 

Had Dick ever even been in that car? If he had-- had he been taken and replaced then and there or later? Bruce took another step. “Talk to me, chum.”

Dick flinched at the old name and fell back. Bruce ran forward in fear, but Jason grabbed him. 

He turned angrily towards his son “Let me go!”

Jason shifted in confusion and his hands dropped. 

Bruce spun wildly. “Dick!” 

But he was gone. Only the shattered mask on the roof showed he had ever been there at all. 

“Bruce?” Jason’s voice wavered and sounded scared. “Bruce what-- what’s going on?”

Bruce bent to retrieve the shards of the white mask. His mind was racing. It had been  _ years _ . They had had him for years, and Bruce hadn’t ever known. He felt sick and angry. He felt enraged. 

“Bruce!” Jason half shouted. “We need to go!”

Bruce stood and nodded. They needed to go home. He needed to figure this out. He would stop at nothing. They moved side by side through the city like ghosts, neither speaking. 

It wasn’t until they were back at the cave that Jason said anything. “B, was that… was that really him?” 

Bruce unclipped his cape and threw it over the back of his chair. “Yes.” 

He didn’t know how, he didn’t know why but there was no doubt. That was Dick Grayson. 

“You said-- Bruce, you said he died. That’s not dead.”

“You died.” Bruce hated the words. He hated how it tasted in his mouth. He hated how it sounded. 

Jason sighed and bumped Bruce lightly as if to let him know he was there with him. “You think they have access to a pit?”

“I don’t know. His eyes--”

“Gold yeah, not really pit standard issue.” Jason paused. “You think it’s even him in there? He took a bullet to the head and spat it out twice tonight. What if it’s just a-- a shell?” 

Bruce bit his lip and watched Jason sink down on the desktop, his legs dangling slightly. He could picture Dick there at just nine years old, sitting-- talking away. Robins had haunted this cave for so long. Bruce closed his eyes and leaned back. Was he in there? Was Dick still there? Had the court broken that boy he had loved and mourned for so long? If he was in there, would he want to come back? Bruce felt ill. Dick would never want to hurt people. That much was certain. Dick was at his very core kind and good. 

“It’s not-- He’s not a shell.” Bruce knew no such thing, but he would break if it was true. If Dick wasn’t in there he would-- He would never recover from that. 

“I mean can they even talk? Or think?” Jason put his boot on the armrest of Bruce’s chair. 

“They have in the past. I don’t know what is done to them or if they are all the same, but one spoke to us.” Bruce closed his eyes. How had he let this happen? How had he let Dick be taken and hurt. Bruce had failed both Dick and Jason in the exact same way. He glanced at Jason. It was a miracle he was back. And Bruce found he was willing to try for a second one. 

“So what? We try and capture him, figure out what they did?” 

“No. We’re going to take the court out.” Bruce felt a rage in his chest forming, an anger that had for so long been directed inward. Now he had a chance to fix it. “We’re going to burn the court to the ground and we’re going to get Dick back.”


End file.
